
Photo: Mike Gordon — wildlifeofeverywhere.com · Project photograph
Rhinoplax vigil
Range
Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Thailand and Myanmar
Size
110–120cm excluding tail feathers (a further 50cm)
Weight
About 3kg
The helmeted hornbill is a very large hornbill found on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Thailand and Myanmar. The casque accounts for some 11% of its roughly 3kg weight. The body length is 110–120cm, not counting tail feathers, which add 50cm. The plumage is mostly blackish except for a white belly and legs and a white tail with a black band near the tip of each feather, and there is a bare, wrinkled throat patch, pale blue to greenish in females and red in males (Wikipedia, general species account).
Its call is two-part, beginning with a series of loud, intermittent barbet-like hoots, over two dozen in number, which sound like the 'toop' of an axe, and the species is also known by that sound. The source does not describe its status in China (Wikipedia, general species account).